National Football League: Division One A: Kerry gathered of their first brace of league points when defeated a rejuvenated Offaly side under lights at the Austin Stack Park on Saturday night, after surviving a late Offaly onslaught and a spate of yellow cards and confusion all round.
Kerry held on to win by three points, but the scoreboard had credited Offaly with a point less and so the visitors were not amused - claiming it might have meant some of their late kicks for points would have been attempts at goal if they'd known the correct score.
Once again, the dreaded yellow card was a major talking point when Galway referee Pat McGovern dismissed Tomás Ó Sé on the stroke of half-time for a very trivial offence and issued three more in the second half.
Kerry boss Jack O'Connor was not impressed. "These new rules are bewildering because Paul Galvin came off the field and he had no idea what he was sent off for.
"He ran into a fellow by accident and he could not believe it. Look, I have gone on record already that this is an experiment that has gone wrong and the sooner it is got rid of the better."
But O'Connor was happier with the result. "The win was important because if we went into the break without a win that would have made it difficult."
Offaly boss Kevin Kilmurray was also happy with his players. "I was happy with the commitment the lads showed in the second half. The fact that the lads came off the field thinking they had lost by four when in fact it was not three was not good enough. I think the fact that the scoreboard was not corrected was not good enough, in fact it was a Kerry joke."
KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé (0-1), A O'Mahony, M Lyons; T Ó Sé (0-1), E Fitzmaurice (0-1), S Moynihan; D Ó Sé, W Kirby; P Galvin (0-1), E Brosnan (1-1), P Kelly (0-3); D Quill (0-2), R O'Connor (0-3, all frees), C Cooper (1-0). Subs: T O'Sullivan for T Ó Sé, B Sheehan for W Kirby, D Doona for E Brosnan. L Hassett for A O'Mahony, B Guiney for P Galvin.
OFFALY: C McNamara; N Grennan, C Evans, S Brady; B Mooney, J Keane, K Slattery; C McManus, A McNamee; N Coughlan (0-1), J Kenny, J Reynolds (0-3); C Quinn (0-6, all frees), N McNamee (0-4, 2 frees), J Coughlan (0-1, free). Subs: J Quinn for N Coughlan, P Kellaghan (0-1) for J Coughlan, M Daly for J Kenny.
YELLOW CARDS - Kerry: T Ó Sé (35 mins) replaced by T O'Sullivan, A O'Mahony (51 mins) replaced by L Hassett, P Galvin (70 mins) replaced by B Guiney. Offaly: K Slattery (45 mins) replaced by C Kiely.
Referee: Pat McGovern (Galway).
